PRÉSENTATION
SEPAND DANESH
Born in 1984 in Tehran, Iran
Lives and works in Paris, France
At the intersection of artistic practice and theoretical research, Sepand Danesh’s work explores the relationships between memory, space, and perception, examining how our experiences shape and transform the way we see the world.
Sepand Danesh is a visual artist whose practice encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and 3D modelling. Developed over more than twenty years, his work explores how fragments can become forms, spaces, bodies, and ultimately, worlds. Memory, transformation, and the construction of visual narratives are central to his artistic practice.
Drawing lies at the origin of his work. Danesh began drawing intensively after arriving in France from Iran at the age of twelve, when he did not yet speak French. He filled sheets of paper with small signs and repeated forms, seeking to construct a personal language. Without a predetermined composition, he developed each drawing fragment by fragment. Each element retains its autonomy while gradually becoming part of a larger whole, whose form emerges throughout the process. This approach to constructing a whole from elementary units continues to structure his practice.
From 2012 onwards, the Corner became a recurring structure in his paintings. Formed by two walls, without a floor or ceiling, this deliberately incomplete architecture constitutes a space of confinement and projection. Figures, objects, memories, and references to art history appear, transform, and disappear within it. The Corner becomes an active structure in which different places, temporalities, and identities can coexist. It allows him to explore the relationships between lived space, memory, and imagination.
Danesh subsequently introduced the Cube as an elementary unit through which bodies, objects, landscapes, and architectures can be constructed. Like the signs in his drawings, each cube is autonomous but can combine with others to produce more complex forms. Figures continuously fragment, reassemble, and transform. Through 3D modelling, Danesh constructs virtual spaces and characters before translating them into painting, establishing a continuous movement between digital space, volume, and image.
From this visual universe emerges DAN.H., a fictional character whose name derives from Danesh’s own. Initially appearing within his paintings, DAN.H. has a body made up of elementary forms, with no fixed anatomy, gender, or identity. He is constantly transforming, becoming human, animal, object, monster, or architecture. Over time, DAN.H. begins to free himself from the forms imposed on him by his creator. His body fragments and simplifies, gradually gaining a degree of autonomy.
Eventually, DAN.H. becomes an artist himself. Once a figure represented by someone else, he now begins to observe and depict the world through his own eyes. His images favour radically simplified forms, somewhere between prehistoric signs, children’s drawings, and early digital imagery. Through them, DAN.H. explores how little visual information is needed for an image to remain recognisable. His transformation from creature to creator marks a new chapter in Danesh’s practice, allowing him to reconsider his own visual language through a different perspective.
Danesh is currently developing a practice-based doctoral research project entitled Between Two Worlds: Forms, Experiences, and Devices of Passage. Situated at the intersection of art, philosophy, and anthropology, this research explores passage as an experience of transformation that shapes our relationship with space, memory, and identity. It focuses particularly on the relationships between constraint, transformation, and projection, and on how these experiences contribute to the formation and evolution of our perception of the world.
CV
EDUCATION & RESEARCH
2027 (en cours d'inscription)
Doctorat en recherche-création, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette - LAA (Laboratoire Architecture Anthropologie), sous la direction de Manola Antonioli.
2005 - 2010
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris - ateliers Giuseppe Penone et Philippe Cognée. DNSAP, 2010.
2009
Département Peinture, Kuvataideakatemia (Académie des Beaux-Arts), Helsinki.
2003 - 2005
BTS Design de produits, ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres, Paris.
2000 - 2003
Brevet de technicien dessinateur, Lycée de Sèvres (actuel Lycée Jean-Pierre-Vernant), Sèvres.
GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2026
Résidence de création en laboratoire de l’Université Montpellier Paul-Valéry, organisée avec le Centre culturel universitaire (CCU)
2025
« Le défi des formes simples », Rhizome, MJC André Philip, Torcy - exposition et ateliers pédagogiques.
2021
Résidence d’artiste, DomaineM, Cérilly (Allier) - exposition de sortie « Un diable au paradis » et édition Les cahiers n°23.
2017
Fondation Camargo, Cassis - « Fragments d’un voyage immobile », en partenariat avec le Printemps de l’Art Contemporain, Marseille.
2013
APM - Ateliers du Plessix-Madeuc, Corseul (Bretagne).
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
■ Fundación MEDIANOCHE0 2021
■ Groupe Accor 2020
■ Fond National d’Art Contemporain 2019
■ Fondation Neuflize obc, 2018
■ FRAC Poitou-Charentes 2017
■ Collection Société Générale, Paris 2017
■ Fondation Jean François Prat, 2015
■ Fondation Colas, Paris 2012
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
■ "FROM FLAMES TO FLOWERS", FFF, Seoul
■ "Requiem 2.0", Lalalande Gallery, Paris
2025
■ "La treversée", A2Z Art Gallery, Paris
■ "Odradek", JDM Gallery, London
■ "Dans la peau du rêve", Chateau des Charmettes, Torcy
2023
■ "A Universe At The Corner", FFF Gallery, Seoul
■ "In The Land Of Te Blind", The One-Eyed Is Roy, Art Porters, Singapore
2022
■ "Fear Of Collapse", Praz-Delavallade, Los Angeles
■ "Universal Exhibition", French Pavillion, Expo Dubai, Dubai
2020
■ "Moi, mon aigle et mon serpent", Galerie Backslash, Paris
2019
■ "Degré zéro du hub", Cnap, Sun7 Runspace, Besançon
■ "Introduction to the hub", Galerie Dastan, Teheran
■ "Symptôme", Espace Scarabé, Chambery
2018
■ "HUBTOPIA", Galerie Backslash, Paris
2017
■ "Fragments d’un voyage immobile", curated Sally Bonn, Galerie des Grands Bains Douches, PAC Marseille
2016
■ "Des ruines pour origine", BACKSLASH, Paris
■ "Encyclopedia Of The Imagination", Drawing Now, Paris
2015
■ "Apostrophe Muette", Art en Directe, La Vitrine am, Paris
2014
■ "Angle Mort", Cité des Arts, Chambéry
2013
■ "Il va crever ton Bonsaï", Galerie Nivet-Carzon, Paris
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
■ Une Rose, Milles Mondes, A2Z Galley, Paris
■ Parrotgration, Jiushi Art Space Museum, Shanghai
2025
■ Vulnerables, Grande Chapelle Hopital Salpetriere, Paris
■ Dastan Collective, Zaal & Simine, Paris
2024
■ Faire Corps, Villa Datris Foundation, Iles-sur-la-Sorgue
■ Ultimus Spectaculi, Galerie Praz Delavalade, Paris
■ CONFLUENCES, Galerie Cohle, Paris
2023
■ Summer Mix Vol.1, Tuesday to Friday, Valencia
■ Brick Games, L21, Balearic Islands
2021
■ Portraits of an Era, Hofa Gallery, London
2020
■ PULLMAN Artist Playground, 10 locations during one year, France
■ Virtual Group Show, Dastan, AI San, Sophie Tappeiner, Bosse & Baum, Clima, The Love Guru, Online
2019
■ Ligne de vie, une exposition de légende, Museum of Contemporary Art MACVAL
■ Aux sources des années 80, Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Les sables d’Olonne
■ Cloture, espace Arrondit, Paris
■ Feux, espace Arrondit, Paris
■ Place Oddity, Huet-Repolt Residency, Art Brusells
2018
■ Le Gymnasium Sacré, Art Dubai Fair, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
■ Future Is Collective, galerie Backslash, Paris
■ …et refaire le monde, galerie Bessieres, Chatou
■ Point Contemporain, Villa Belleville, Paris
2017
■ Numero Zero, curated by Sally Bonn, FRAC PACA, Marseille
■ L’exercice du ressort, Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris
2016
■ Sans limites : de l’objet à l’oeuvre, Parcours Saint Germain, Les Deux Magots, Paris
■ Le contemporain dessiné, commissariat d’Agnès Callu, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
■ Demain, dès l’aube, Primo Piano, Paris
■ Stall-I, carte blanche à Gauthier Le Rouzic, Cité des arts, Chambéry
■ DRAW, Le Silencio Club, Paris
2015
■ "(et pour) quelques minutes de plus", curated by AFTER HOURS, La Générale en Manufacture, Sèvres
■ "Fragments", BACKSLASH, Paris
■ "Chercher le garçon", curated by Frank Lamy, Musée d’Art contemporain du Val de Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine
■ "La carte postale revisitée", curated by Caroline Hancock & Paule-Emmanuel Odin, La Compagnie, Marseille
■ "Printemps de l’Art Contemporain", La Compagnie, Marseille
■ "Autoconstruction", UC gallery, Paris
2014
■ "Confort Moderne", Collectif Idiom, Galerie Clovis XV, Brussels
■ "Plan #1", Underconstruction Galerie, Paris
■ "L’âme et la bête", Galerie l’Antichambre, Chambery
■ "YIA", Underconstruction Galerie, Carreau du Temple, Paris
■ "Fondation Colas", Paris
■ "ENS Art et Métiers", Paris
■ "5ème Biennale de Marrakech", MINT & AWIIILY, Maroc
■ "Twins", curated by Alexandre Oustinov, Beaux-Arts de Paris
■ "Aliennnation Group Show #3", commissariat de \ curated by Hicham Bouzid, Le 18, Marrakech
■ "Aliennnation Group Show #2", Atelier 31, Paris
2013
■ "58ème", Salon de Montrouge
■ "Docks Art Fair", Galerie L’antichambre, Lyon
■ "La Suite #1", Galerie l’Antichambre, Chambéry
■ "Paysage domestique", Abbaye de Léhon, Dinan
ART FAIRS
2026
■ Art Paris Art Fair, Paris
2025
■ Art021, Shanghai
■ Abudhabi Art, Abudhabi
■ The Preview Seoul, Seoul
■ Art Basel, Hong Kong
2023
■ The Armory Show, New York
2022
■ Art Dubai, Dubai
2021
■ ARCO, Madrid
■ Asia Now, Paris
2020
■ ART021, Shanghai
PUBLICATIONS
Michel Cegarra
DANESH PHILOSOPHY
PROPHECIES OF PAINTING
Millions of artworks are born in artists’ studios. Once transformed into images, they are plunged into the ocean of the Internet, where they circulate like living organisms, fulfilling their destiny as vessels for lives, thoughts, and bodies. This expanded network of communication, marked by dissonance and fragmentation, continually multiplies its components, much like nature itself in the abundance of its creations. The entropy and chaos that govern the natural world are also accompanied by processes of ordering and constantly shifting systems of regulation, in which the traces of their origins are eventually swallowed up.
SEPAND DANESH
PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTION
666 fragmented drawings created for the publishing house TehranZin.
Sepand Danesh’s drawings rarely exceed 2 cm in diameter. By reducing both their size and the time required to create them, the mind is prompted to move rapidly from one idea to another, without necessarily being aware of these transitions. The resulting chronological flow reveals a kind of genealogy of thought, in which stimuli, moments of cognitive excitement, patterns of association, and sometimes unexpected reactions to external influences coexist.
In a sense, this practice breaks down the structure of behaviour into a mosaic of elements. The forms that emerge through these drawings shift the relationships between figure and ground, motifs and intentions, trial and error. They offer a way of observing how the perceiving subject draws upon a multitude of different approaches to confront itself.
NINA LEGER
HUB ZERO
Epic [rewind]
Faced with this grid running to the
extinction of the glance, one
understood the story
that animated what, from the start,
seemed to be disorder.
It had begun like this: the world had
emptied itself. The things, did not
disappear
disappeared, they were integrated,
absorbed,
amalgamated,
devoured by walls or floors,
caught in the mass,
impossible to extract.
BERNARD COMMENT & SALLY BONN
SEPAND DANESH
MONOGRAPHY
The work of French-Iranian artist Sepand Danesh unfolds within a world shaped by silence, where every gesture and detail invites personal interpretation. His works convey a sense of solitude rooted in the artist’s own history, as his family fled Iran after years of war.
INTERVIEWS
Interview "Vulnérables"
An interview about the sculpture I created for the exhibition Vulnérable at La Grande Chapelle of the Hôpital Salpêtrière in Paris, exploring resilience, hospital mechanics, the search for identity, disfiguration, and reconstruction.
Interview "Répétitions et différences"
Sepand Danesh’s work revolves around the pixel, both in two dimensions through painting and in three dimensions through sculpture. His more monumental sculptures are installed in public spaces.
His paintings, conceived as trompe-l’œil, create the illusion of being displayed within a corner through innovative uses of perspective. Rather than existing as isolated images, the works become part of a setting, embedded within a spatial context.
Phenomenology & Roy Lichtenstein's
In 2023, I was invited by Guillaume Levy Lambert, the director of Artporters gallery, for a solo show in Singapore. Here you can find an uncut conversation in both English and french about the phenomenological approach of Roy Lichtenstein, Pop Art as a pop-up phenomenon in opposition to the pop of popular and the impact of the monocular vision in the phenomenology of perception.
EXPO DUBAI, French Pavillon
An interview at my studio with the French pavillon team of the Expo Dubai Universal Exhibition.
I will show the 1/12 size model of my installation and talk about the idea behind this project, the key fact being that all cubes are painted in camaïeu, (monochrome of 4 different shades of each colors).
This installation was a two years work project with a total of 25 sculptures.
Pullman Hotels & Persian Mythology
Based on an epic poem of the 12th century by the Persian poet Attar, this interview is an introduction about 30 paintings representing birds in triangular shape canvases.
I will talk about the Simorgh, mythological creature in Persian culture and its influence on the fragmented birds I made for this project.
Expo Dubai 3D views
In this interview about the installation of 25 sculptures for the Universal Exhibition in Dubai, the lead was about the main idea behind the project.
We can see some 3D models of the French Pavillon and also views from my studio.